Chance To Be Like Him
by haveyouseenmyhaggis
Summary: Timothy Latimer sees the horror of the First World War first hand, this is what he sees and how the Doctor and Martha give him the hope to carry on. Mild use of bad language.


**Title: Chance To Be Like Him**

**Summary: Timothy Latimer sees the horror of the First World War first hand, this is what he sees and how the Doctor and Martha give him the hope to carry on.**

**Author's Note: Yeah, I've been revising again. I figured out that I learn much better this way and I might as well share my revision with you!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Doctor Who._**

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It seems like my whole life has been leading up tot his moment and I hate it. My school was preparing us all for the coming of war, and finally here I am. It's terrible. They always told us war would be a honourable thing, but it's not. There's so much pain and suffering in the eyes of every person I see. Even the laughter here has pain behind it.

We live in constant fear of the bombs and death. It's common knowledge that the next bullet coming to our trench could have our name on it. "You can't dwell on it though, lad, you have to keep going. It'll drive you mad if you think about it too much," a man once told me. He'd been in the trench for over a year already. He was shot to pieces the very next day.

We live in squalor. There are rats and lice everywhere. The lads and me spend our free time burning the lice off our clothes with a lit match. They make a horrible popping noise when their bodies explode. It's revolting.

We're constantly up to our ankles in wet, sloppy mud and we're just expected to deal with it. Our sergeant checks our feet every so often to check we're not deliberately letting our feet rot just to get home. What are a few toes if it means you can get out of this muddy hell? I remember when the sergeant found one of my friends was trying to rot his feet. He was furious, "Private, can you imagine what would happen if everyone decided to take the cowards option? There'd be nobody here to fight this bloody war! Would you abandon your country like this? Would you? Don't you know I wish I could get the fuck out of here too? Don't think you're the only one!" And I thought hell would be filled with fire and redness; not mud and darkness. There certainly are demons though.

Then there are the people who actually do manage to get the final escape from this fighting. A man from our battalion put a bullet through his brain. It was terrifying. We found him in the morning. He'd pulled the trigger with his foot and shot himself in the roof of the mouth. "We must never talk of him again," the sergeant told us that day. Apparently it wasn't the kind of thing we wanted the country back home to here. His family were told he died in action. Yeah, right. Sometimes I can't decide if that man was braver than me, or just a coward.

Sometimes we all just needed a bit of encouragement. The day I got a letter was the best day I'd had. I never expected to get a letter from anyone because there was nobody to write to me. The school was the only place I'd known and I'd spent all my life there. Every man from the school was here fighting with me. They all had letters from their families at home, but I had nobody.

But then I got my letter from Martha Jones! I'd never expected it at all, but here it was. My letter! I never thought I'd hear from her of the Doctor again, but I did. _Dear Timothy, _it said, _I hope you're all right. You're doing a great job, and we're proud of you. You'll be a hero when you come home. The Doctor says he fought in a war once too, he says you have to keep believing you'll be okay. Which you will. Good luck Timothy. Be brave. _

I cried that night; tears of hope, loneliness, fear and happiness. I clutched my fob watch tight in my hand and thought about the Doctor, Martha and their little blue box. Maybe they save the world all the time, in huge feats, but I can do my bit right here, right now. I can save the little world I live for.

The lists of the dead and injured go up and up and up by the day. It's terrifying. We see man after man taken away to the field hospital. Most of them will die of their injuries but some will survive and be sent back here. The gas attacks are the worst. The mustard gas comes floating along No Man's Land like a blanket of fog. It's heavier than air so it sinks into all the potholes. The frantic scramble for gasmasks is terrifying. There's always the one man that isn't quick enough and the gas burns his throat and his eyes and his lungs. He will die, for sure.

I know I have to stay strong but sometimes it's hard. I keep my fob watch close and try to believe the Doctor is here with me. I thought so much of that man. He was brave. He was strong. He's everything I hope I can be. Maybe this war will give me a chance to be like him.


End file.
